The Struggle
by thestupidgenius1123
Summary: Join Max and Fang in their everyday struggle to keep their romance - and their family - alive. Trilogy-verse, months before Consequences. SPOILERS. Oneshot. Fax.


**The Struggle**

**A/N: Well, this brain child wouldn't leave me alone, and while I know a few of you are waiting on other updates…I hope this will quench that need for a few days. My summer has been nonstop hectic ever since it started. **

**Phew! **

**[Summary: Join Max and Fang in their everyday struggle to keep romance - and their family - alive. Trilogy-verse, months before **_**Consequences**_**. SPOILERS. Oneshot. Fax.]**

**NOTE: This is not included in **_**Trilogy Outtakes **_**only because it wasn't really an "outtake." I wrote this post-trilogy, and it kind of takes place before **_**Consequences**_**, so I decided to make it it's own oneshot. **

**NOTE: ****Two months**** before **_**Consequences**_**!**

**Third person. I apologize for any mistakes in advance. **

**WARNING: Must read trilogy first. **_**Risks**_**, **_**Choices**_**, then **_**Consequences**_**…all found on my profile.**

• • •

Aria and Tyler glanced at each other before looking at their mother, who was sitting at the kitchen counter, grinning at her phone. Her hair was pulled up messily, her eyes tired from hours of no sleep, and her clothes were rumpled and she looked like crap.

But something on her phone was making her…giggle.

It was unnerving.

"What are you smiling about?" Aria asked with mild disinterest.

"Nothing," Max said, sipping her coffee, still not looking up from her phone.

"Who are you texting?" Tyler asked suspiciously.

"Your dad," Max said.

"Ew!"

"Mom, that's gross."

Max finally looked up, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I can't text my husband?"

"He's upstairs!" Tyler exclaimed. "Just go talk to him!"

Max's face dropped into serious mode. "Shh! Everyone remember that five year old terror that has been screaming for the past twelve hours straight about his ear infection? He's asleep. Which means now, we're all playing Don't Wake Alex. The loser is grounded from the pantry. Go ahead and test me."

Tyler lowered his voice. "It's just weird."

"What's weird about it?" Max asked.

"You and dad are sending each other…dirty messages right in front of your children!" Aria breathed.

Max gaped.

"Sexting, Aria," Tyler said. "It's called-"

"Ew, I _know _what it's called. Don't say that about our parents. Ew, ew, ew."

"We are not sexting," Max said indignantly. "And it's really none of your business, though might I remind you how you came into existence in the first place-"

Tyler held up both of his hands in front of his mom's face. "No. _Don't _remind us. I beg you."

Max smirked and looked back down at her phone.

"I don't get it," Aria said. "You and Dad can read each other's minds, share dreams, teleport to each other…don't you ever get tired of talking?"

"Yeah, that's when we text," Max breathed, taking another swing of coffee.

Just then, Fang made his way down the stairs. "Morning," he said, passing through the kitchen toward the coffee maker. "Where are the other two slaves?"

Aria frowned at her brother. "We could totally report them."

Max ignored that and said, "Cass is still sleeping. Alex finally passed out. Finally. We need to get him to the doctor."

Fang nodded, taking in this update stoically as he poured a generous amount of creamer into his coffee. "Did you get my text?"

Max smirked. "Yeah."

Tyler made a sound in the back of his throat, then said, "You two, hand over your phones!"

"What? Why?" Max asked.

"Because! This is making me uncomfortable!" Tyler exclaimed, though remembered to keep his voice low.

"It'll make you even more uncomfortable if you read them," Max muttered, making Fang snort from across the room. She still handed her phone to her son, who seemed serious about the confiscation.

Fang said, "Wait, did you delete the pictures?"

"Oh my _God, _I'm going to throw up," Aria declared, getting up from the table and promptly leaving the room. Tyler shoved Max's phone back at her. Fang chuckled and Max glared at him disapprovingly.

"That was _funny_," Fang defended.

Max rolled her eyes. "You can't joke about that with them, that's bad parenting."

"You _just _were, don't try that bullshit with me. I've heard about you. I know your tricks."

"Yeah?" Max said, getting up. She walked across the kitchen and wrapped her arms around his torso, murmuring, "What have you heard about me?"

Fang grinned down at her, about to take the bait until: "I'm still in here and this is gross."

Fang looked across the room at his son. "Go away, then."

Tyler threw his arms up. "I'll never know what it's like to be loved by a parent!"

Max laughed. "Maybe we should've let that couple adopt them when we had the chance," she mused.

"Honey, if we'd done that they'd be in a loving household where two great parents loved them all equally and cared about their problems."

"You're right, we did a good thing, saving them from that fate."

They kissed then, holding onto each other. Fang was leaning back against the kitchen counter and Max was basically leaning her entire body on his. Fang cupped her face with his hands and then began pushing back stray locks of her hair when the pulled apart.

"Think we could trick anyone into taking the kids for the day?" Max murmured.

"Nope," Fang said. "They've all fallen for it once. Doubt any one of them will do it again."

Max stuck her lower lip out. "Damn."

"You know who would probably take them for the night, though…"

Max's eyes lit up.

They said it at the same time: "Grandma."

Then Max sighed. "I feel bad pushing the kids on her. Maybe we should just have a make-shift date night later, once everyone else is in bed…"

"We could always pay Tyler to babysit," Fang said. "Let him invite over Brittany, or Quake, or…does he have any more friends?"

"Shut up, I can hear you!" came from the living room.

Max laughed. "We just worry, baby!"

"How much would we have to pay you to babysit tonight?" Fang began to haggle.

Tyler reappeared in the kitchen archway. "How about two mortgages."

Max scoffed. "Are you kidding?"

"I'll babysit," Aria said, walking into the kitchen. "Tyler was going out to do something anyways."

Tyler nodded. "Brittany wanted to go out."

Aria said, "And I don't care if you pay me, but…I do want you to do something for me today."

Fang and Max sighed together. "What?"

"I want you to teach me how to drive."

Max thought to her husband _You're it_ and untangled herself from him. She told Tyler to help her start something for breakfast. Fang rubbed his chin. "Why should we teach you to drive?"

Aria looked at her father as if he'd just eaten a bunny. Totally appalled.

"Because I'm fifteen and it's your duty as a parent? It's my right! Denying me my right is like…child neglect!" Aria retorted.

"What if I don't want you to drive yet? I want you to stay sweet and innocent and dependent on me forever."

"Good one," Tyler mumbled from across the room.

Aria ignored him. "Why can't you be a cool dad? The kind of dad who wants to teach me things?"

Fang scoffed, raising his eyebrows. "And you'd sit around to learn things from me? Really?"

"Well, yeah, if it was worth learning!"

"And driving is a skill that you think is worth learning."

"Yes."

"From me?"

Aria gritted her teeth. "_Yes_."

"Tell me I'm a cool dad."

Aria glared at him for a moment. "This is not worth it, I'd rather learn from _Tyler_."

Well that was a stretch.

"God, no, I don't want to die," Tyler said, a look of pure horror on his face.

"Hey, Tyler, ever flown through a storm? _That's _smoother than your driving."

"A shark's teeth are smoother than your driving," Tyler snapped back.

Aria snorted. "You've never seen me drive, idiot."

"Yeah, well…I bet you suck."

"Okay, stop," Fang said. "If I teach you to drive, then you and Tyler will just fight over who gets the car. We don't need another thing for you guys to fight about."

"Okay, then buy us cars."

Max laughed. "Are we made of money?"

"Buy your _own _car," Fang retorted.

"What? You guys said you'd buy me a car!" Tyler complained.

"You promised him a car?" Aria demanded.

Fang and Max glanced at each other. "_Only _if he got a job…which he hasn't."

"It's a tough economy out there!" Tyler exclaimed. "I'm not magic!"

"Okay, this is totally besides the point. I need to know how to drive."

Fang frowned. He looked over at Max, who shrugged. "She's gotta learn sometime."

"Okay, let's go, kid," Fang said.

• • •

"Stop, stop, stop stop _stop _Aria!" Fang grabbed the handle near his head and pressed himself back into the passenger seat. "Stop, goddamn it!"

Aria stopped, finally, and swung her head to glare at her father. "When you scream like that, it's distracting. And annoying. And it also makes me want to rip your head off."

Fang frowned. Aria had mockingly decided to start speaking to her father only in therapy-appropriate sentences. _When you blank, it makes me feel blank_. _I don't like it when you blank. Maybe if you didn't blank, I wouldn't blank. _

It was just this new thing she was trying.

"I can't teach you to drive if you don't follow my directions," Fang said calmly. "When I say stop, you need to stop."

"You didn't have to say it six times!" Aria said. "I heard you the first time!"

"Then _do _it," Fang said, as if it were obvious.

Aria crossed her arms. "Maybe I should just have Mom teach me."

"Your mother got in a coma because of her bad driving," Fang said, checking both directions absently. "Get back on the road, with your blinker."

Aria narrowed her eyes and slowly got back onto the road. They were only practicing on the backroads that led to their house, so it wasn't as if she'd slammed to a stop in traffic. She had no idea why he was making such a huge deal out of it.

"Okay, you need to try and regulate your speed," Fang said. "No more jerking the car. And then next time you turn, you better slow down before you flip the van!"

"Calm down, Jesus," Aria breathed. "I'm not even doing anything wrong."

"How the hell would you know? Slow down!"

"You are so uptight right now."

"Do you see that stop sign? Do you know what it means?"

"Golly, I would think I'm supposed to _stop _there-"

Cue rough jerk of the car.

"You need to start breaking before you get to the white line," Fang said, trying to be patient.

"That would've been helpful advice, _five seconds ago_."

Fang sighed, putting his elbow on the door and resting his head in his hand. "You are…your mother."

"Gee, thanks," Aria said snidely. "Where do I go now?"

"Straight," Fang sighed. "And, by the way, I meant you're your mom in your attitude _and _your driving."

"Glad you cleared that up."

"Now, if you are old enough and mature enough to drive, you're old enough and mature enough to respect our rules. Which means no drinking and driving, no funky business in the backseat-"

"Dad!" Aria exclaimed, turning red at the implications. "Did you just say _funky_?"

Fang didn't take the bait for the distraction from his point. "I was a teenager, too, Aria. At least, until your mom got pregnant. Then I had to be an _adult_."

"Are you trying to scare me away from teenage pregnancy? Because you call yourself an adult but sometimes even Alex seems older than you; I've seen you and Uncle Iggy on game night," Aria accused, her eyes narrowed.

Fang smirked.

They drove for about an hour. Over that hour of driving lessons, there were many exclamations of "Stop!" and "Aria!" and "Stop yelling at me!" But, Fang had to admit, she'd done alright her first time driving and she wasn't going to be nearly as bad as Tyler.

When they got home, they walked into chaos. Tyler was burning something on the stove for lunch. Max had Alex sitting on the kitchen counter. She was measuring out some children's pain relief medicine while Alex wailed, clutching his right ear. Cassidy was apparently in the way, because she ad Tyler both exclaimed and then Tyler shouted, "Cassidy, get _out _of the kitchen!"

Fang sighed. He dropped the keys in the bowl on the counter and then scooped Alex up.

"You call Val?" he said lowly to Max. She nodded, holding up her cell phone.

"She gave me the number of the pediatrician. I've been on hold for ten minutes."

Fang nodded and took the sniffling, whimpering Alex into the living room.

"My ear hurts, Daddy," Alex cried.

"I know buddy."

Fang rubbed Alex's back, trying to get him to clam down. Max was in the kitchen, telling Cassidy to go find something else to do before lunch. Tyler was ordering Aria around, trying to salvage said lunch.

Alex was still crying when Max came into the living room and fit a sucker into his little curled fist. "The doctor told me to give you this," Max said.

Alex frowned. "Will it fix my ear?"

"Yes, baby," Max said, brushing her hand over his hair.

Alex immediately started sucking on the candy and climbed off Fang's lap. He sat on the carpet and, in seconds was hypnotized by cartoons.

_Nice, _Fang thought to Max, impressed. _Why didn't we think of that yesterday? _

Max only sighed, smiling tightly, before she went back into the kitchen. Fang sat back against the couch and closed his eyes for a moment.

And it was only eleven.

• • •

"Isn't this bizarre?" Max asked, leaning her head on Fang's shoulder as they walked down the street.

"I keep expecting to hear one of the kids yelling, or Aria and Tyler fighting," Fang breathed.

"Me too," Max said. "It's been forever since we went on a date."

"I know. Where do you want to go?" Fang asked.

"Honestly? Can we not go to some stupid restaurant?

"What'd you have in mind?"

"Our spot?"

Fang smirked. "Good idea."

It had taken Max and Fang an hour to get from their room and out the door for their date. Having been stopped by each child at least twice, Fang had finally grabbed Max's arm and called out, "Aria answers all your problems until midnight tonight!" and shoved his wife out the door.

Now the two flew to their spot, their cave outcropping in the woods where they liked to camp every year. When they landed, the two of them got comfortable on the large slab of stone inside the outcropping, curling up together.

"Everyone talks about how great it is to have a big family, and I love raising our kids, but…I miss making them, too," Max breathed.

Fang hummed in Max's ear, planting kisses down her neck and making her laugh and squirm away.

"Promise me we'll never be that old married couple that sleeps in separate rooms and has awkward dinners together, talking about the weather and politics."

"I promise we'll never be that couple."

"Good, me too."

They sat in silence, and then Max spun around and said, "It's just…I don't wear anything sexy and we never have time alone and watching me clean up around the house and wrangle four kids is probably anything but attractive-"

"You being a mom," Fang said softly, "is one of the most attractive things about you."

"Shut up, you're saying that because you have to," Max said. Fang opened his mouth to disagree, and Max pushed her fingers to his lips. "But I'll take it."

Fang smirked at her, pulling her in for a quick kiss.

Fang brushed back her hair when the broke apart. "One of these days, we'll sneak away on vacation. Just us. Somewhere we've never been before."

Max's eyes widened with her smile. "I'll hold you to that, mister."

Fang groaned. "Hold _something _to me, please."

Max laughed and kissed him again, pushing him back.

They breathed in together and breathed out the words, "I love you."

Max grabbed his face. "For the record, I said it first."

Fang rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around her waist. "For the record, I _knew _it first."

**A/N: Thanks for reading. Drop me a review, please!**


End file.
